LAX vs John Wayne

[crystal1313]

We flew Alaska from lax terminal 6. It is also run down. Hardly any seats and bathrooms are gross every time we go.

 

[Jawwdoc]

Direct is NOT the same as non-stop, particularly in winter or summer months where weather can affect your connecting flight. Orange County/Santa Ana/John Wayne is a far superior experience vs LAX and a much shorter drive on most days. SNA all day IMHO.

 

[Sykes]

All nonstop flights are also direct flights, but not all direct flights are nonstop. OP is correct in calling it a direct flight, although they were probably preferring the nonstop aspect of it.

I’ll take a nonstop to LAX over a connection to SNA any day of the week. The LAX drive isn’t great, but adding a connection doubles your chance of flight disruption and in most cases will add more total trip time than just dealing with the inconvenience of LAX.

 

[DebbieB]

I flew PIT > DFW > SNA last month on American. Almost missed my connection at DFW, had to change terminals, very stressful. If I could get a decent non-stop, I would do LAX. I used to travel to LA for work a lot, I would do LAX if I could get a non-stop or Burbank if not (office was in Glendale).

 

[starry_solo]

Right! So there can be a stop. Or even two. What people mean when they say "direct" is "non-stop."


Mine too!

Oh yeah, we had, what I thought was a non-stop flight to Europe about 15 years ago (booked by travel agency). Turned out it was direct, with a stop on the East Coast... boo...

 

[MillauFr]

Correct...while ABC>CDE>FGH on flight 1234 is a "direct flight" the non-stop leg of CDE>FGH is also a techncially direct flight...both terms are appropriate for that leg. Non-stop is a just a subset of direct flight.

It is kinda like the soda vs pop argument...while there are preferences, both are correct in communicating what you mean.

Correct but if you have a snowstorm in CDE your travel plans will be impacted. Much better to search out the non-stop option and fly from ABC to FGH.

 

[MillauFr]

Direct is NOT the same as non-stop, particularly in winter or summer months where weather can affect your connecting flight. Orange County/Santa Ana/John Wayne is a far superior experience vs LAX and a much shorter drive on most days. SNA all day IMHO.

Everyone agrees that SNA is superior. The question is if risking a connection is worth it? I would vote for no.

 

[starlite_]

I would 100% do a non-stop flight vs having connections. It doesn't matter how long the drive to DLR will be, the connection will be longer.

 

[ktlm]

From our home airport we have non-stop flights to LAX, but must take a connection to go to SNA. We pick SNA. It is closer to DLR, the airport is easy to navigate, baggage claim is easy and usually fairly quick; when you are leaving security rarely takes more than 5-10 minutes, and the rental cars are on site. To us it is worth the connection and sometimes a little extra flight cost (although sometimes SNA is actually cheaper) to avoid the hassle of LAX in general, and the drive to DLR from there which can take 45 minutes, or 2 hours. For us it was the more convenient option, especially when DD was younger.

 

[Stormypetrel]

I will almost never choose a flight with a layover with my 3 kids in tow but the conventional wisdom here and on Disney blogs, plus my general hatred of LAX had me reconsidering. But the available flights to SNA to choose from were so bad. All of them either had a less than an hour or more than 4 hour layover. I’m coming from a major metropolitan area with 3 large airports (dc), but my options to SNA were still limited and undesirable. We ended up going with the nonstop to LAX after all; glad to hear it’s not as bad as some of the bloggers make it out to be.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Where are you making the connection? Chicago in the winter - NOPE. Phoenix? Sure, why not?
Just picked up DM at SNA over the (Thanksgiving Holliday) weekend. Everyone, and I mean everyone had told the people they were picking up to meet them at the curb in front of the JW statue. Traffic was a little backed up right there because people were having to double park long enough to hustle their passengers into the car. If you went 100' in either direction there was no traffic whatsoever. Same held true for DD that I dropped off at LGB.

Meanwhile, at LAX...
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/crush-of-thanksgiving-traffic-underway-in-socal/

 

[Lumpy1106]

The drive to and from is one thing but dealing with the congestion-confusion inside LAX is another.

If the direct flight is way faster in the overall time to get to DLR then maybe it would be worth it. Otherwise John Wayne (SNA) it the only way to go. Long Beach (LGB) is a nice small airport too. I would fly JetBlue when they had flights our of Portland, Oregon.

Sorry to report Jet Blue pulled out of LGB. They wanted an International terminal with customs, Long Beach said no. LGB is mostly Southwest now.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Just found this - bookmark added;
https://www.flylax.com/lax-traffic-and-ground-transportation/airport-construction-map